A four-year legal saga over campaign finance laws came to an end as the Arizona Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Committee for Justice and Fairness, allowing an appellate court’s ruling against the group to stand.

Arizona government officials are barred from taking any actions that disallow medical marijuana patients from taking their medicine, even as a term of probation, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled April 7.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that 36 Republican lawmakers have standing to sue over Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion program, dealing a potentially crushing blow to one of Brewer’s signal accomplishments just days before she leaves office and threatening to take away health care from a quarter million people.

Arizona lawmakers are asking the state Court of Appeals to rule that a trial judge acted illegally in ordering them to immediately cough up an extra $317 million for public schools and even more next year and beyond.

In what may be one of his first acts as governor, Doug Ducey will have to decide whether to spearhead the defense of a policy he dislikes, kick a quarter million people off AHCCCS or drop a nuclear bomb on the state’s overstretched budget by taking a principled stand.